Greetings, welcome to Ameren Corporation’s Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Andrew Kirk, Director of Investor Relations for Ameren Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Kirk. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning. On the call with me today are Warner Baxter, our Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer; and Michael Moehn, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; as well as other members of the Ameren management team. Warner and Michael will discuss our earnings results and guidance, as well as provide a business update. Then we will open the call for questions. Before we begin, let me cover a few administrative details. This call contains time-sensitive data that is accurate only as of the date of today’s live broadcast, and redistribution of this broadcast is prohibited. To assist with our call this morning, we have posted a presentation on the amereninvestors.com homepage, that will be referenced by our speakers. As noted on Page 2 of the presentation, comments made during this conference call may contain statements that are commonly referred to as forward-looking statements. Such statements include those about future expectations, beliefs, plans, strategies, objectives, events, conditions and financial performance. We caution you that various factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For additional information concerning these factors, please read the forward-looking statements section in the news release we issued today, and the forward-looking statements and Risk Factors sections in our filings with the SEC. Lastly, all per-share earnings amounts discussed during today’s presentation, including earnings guidance, are presented on a diluted basis, unless otherwise noted. Now, here’s Warner, who’ll start on Page 4 of the presentation.

Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. This morning, I'm going to kick off our presentation by summarizing our team strong 2019 financial and operating performance, as well as highlight some of our key accomplishments, that will position Ameren for success in the future. Importantly, I will then look ahead and discuss how we plan to continue delivering superior long-term value in 2020 and beyond to our customers, communities and shareholders. I'll then turn it over to Michael to discuss key drivers of our 2019 earnings results, and 2020 earnings guidance, as well as some key regulatory matters. And as always, we will turn it over to you for Q&A after our remarks. Before I jump into the details of our accomplishments and strategic areas of focus, I want to reiterate that strategy that has been delivering significant long-term value to all of our stakeholders. Specifically, our strategy is to invest in a robust pipeline of regulated energy infrastructure, continuously improving operating performance, and advocate for responsible energy policies to deliver superior value to our customers and shareholders. As always, our customers continue to be at the center of our strategy. As a result, we're focused on meeting our customers energy needs and exceeding their expectations, and in so doing, delivering on our shareholders' expectations for sustainable and strong long-term earnings per share and dividend growth. Our customers' expectations include providing them with safe, reliable and affordable service. They want new tools, products and services to enhance their interactions with us and to better manage their energy usage. And our customers also want us to continue to be forward thinking, when it comes to environmental, social and governance matters. I'm pleased to say that our actions and performance in 2019, as well as our strategic areas…

Thanks Warner, and good morning, everyone. Turning now to Page 18 of our presentation, today, we reported 2019 core earnings of $3.35 per share, compared to core earnings of $3.37 per share in 2018. Ameren Missouri, our largest segment, experienced a decrease of $0.24 per share, from $1.98 per share in 2018, to $1.74 per share in 2019. This decrease was largely due to lower electric retail sales driven by weather, with reduced earnings by approximately $0.26 per share. In 2019, we experienced near normal summer and winter temperatures, compared to warmer summer and colder winter temperatures, in the year ago period. Ameren Missouri's results also reflected this year scheduled refueling outage at our Calloway Energy Center, which reduced earnings by $0.09 per share compared to 2018, when there was no refueling outage. The next Calloway refueling is scheduled for the fall of 2020. Higher property taxes also reduced earnings by $0.05 per share in 2019, when compared to 2018. These items were partially offset by the positive comparative impacts related to MEEIA performance incentives, which contributed $0.08 per share, in addition to lower other operations and maintenance expenses. Turning to other segments, Ameren Transmission earnings were up $0.08, which reflected increased infrastructure investments. Earnings for Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, were up $0.05, which reflected higher rates effective the November 2018, and increased infrastructure investments. In addition, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution earnings were up $0.02 due to the increased investments, mostly offset by a lower-allowed return equity under formula ratemaking of 8.4% compared to 8.9% for the prior year. The 2019 allowed ROE is based on a 2019 average 30 year Treasury yield of approximately 2.6%, down from the 2018 average of 3.1%. Ameren parent and other results reflected higher tax benefits, primarily associated with share based compensation, and charitable…

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Bank of America. Please proceed.

Good morning, Julien.

Good morning. Congratulations, what an update here. I appreciate it.

Thanks, Julien. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Absolutely. So perhaps just to kick it off here, first, I want to turn it back to Illinois and some of the legislative efforts you described here. Can you perhaps at least begin to allude to what the opportunity would be under the downstate element here, specifically, I think you highlighted in the transcript solar, EV and further distribution investments, but I just want to try to put of at least an initial number around what that totality could be. And I presume that's largely not reflected in your outlook, as you just updated. And I got a follow-up as well.

Yes. So thanks. Look, a couple of things. Number one, we're excited about this legislation. We think it really has some really important elements in terms of trying to move Illinois to the cleaner energy future that they've been talking about, but also, doing the things that we have been doing for the past eight years, and that's modernizing the grid. So number one, one of the things in terms of trying to put some perspective on it, clearly, the grid modernization efforts, we talk a lot about those and those are, in some respects reflected back in the slide that we showed in terms of our 10 year outlook, some of those dollars are certainly a mirror. But I think, right now, it's premature for us to put a specific number on the solar and energy storage opportunities or electrification. I think clearly, as you've seen us too in Missouri, we see these solar plus battery storage projects and they've been really important to help reliability. Richard and his team in Illinois certainly see those same types of opportunities. And look, at electrification, I think across the country, we're just scratching the surface in terms of what those opportunities can be. So, I'd like to put something around that for you, but I think it's just a little early for us to do that. But clearly, we see this as an important opportunity for the State of Illinois and especially, downstate Illinois.

Excellent. And just wanted to clarify a little bit more on your financing plan here. Two further points. When you talk and perhaps emphasize at points throughout the transcript dividend growth. And obviously, you're broadly at the lower end of your contemplated payout ratio. You also increased a little bit the equity funding plan through the outlook. How do you think about dividend growth given the pace of CapEx that you have? Do you think that ultimately, we're still looking at trending towards the lower end of that payout, just through at least the bulk of this high growth period?

Yes. Thanks Julien. It's a great question. So look, we've talked a lot about the dividend and no doubt it's an important area of focus for our Board of Directors. I think what we did today, we pointed out the obvious, our execution of our strategy over the last several years has driven our dividend payout ratio down meaningfully, to the lower end or our 55% to 70%. And so as a result, as you look ahead, there's no doubt that we have been allocating a great deal of capital to rate based growth. And as you see in this plan, we continue to do that and we've had a solid dividend. And so, as we look ahead, I think the fact that we've been able to bring the dividend payout ratio down, it just gives us greater flexibility with respect to capital allocation, including from my perspective, position us well for future dividend growth.

Excellent. Well, thank you. I'll leave it there.

Thanks, Julien. I appreciate the time.

Our next question is from Steve Fleishman with Wolfe Research. Please proceed.

Good morning, Steve. How are you doing?

Hey, good morning Warner. So, I guess, first question just on the Illinois law proposal, could you just maybe give us a little bit color of kind of who's supporting that and how that - how, if at all that this proposal might interact with the clean air, clean jobs bill that's also going on?

Look, couple of things to start there. The bill is sponsored by Senator Hastings and Senator Hunter on the Senate side and on the House side, it is - sponsors are a Representative Greenwood and Representative Huffman. So when you step back and you look at the fundamental elements of this bill in this legislation, number one, it's very consistent with things that have been talked about in Illinois really for the past 12 months in terms of trying to put greater levels of investment for solar, for battery storage, electrification. These are all things which are consistent with the governor's package. So, we think, as we've talked around with key stakeholders, these are important elements of any forward-thinking legislation. And so that's in this bill. Secondly, I think over time, you have seen the modernization of the grid and the legislation associated with that, how that has received widespread support for all the right reasons, for reliability purposes, for customer affordability purposes, for job creation. All those things are really spelled robust support for that. When you put these two things together, we think this legislation has really the opportunity to gain broad based support. Having said that, it's early in the session here, and so Richard and his team had done a fantastic job of educating key stakeholders, talking with many folks that are at the table, including those that are looking at other pieces of legislation. And so we're not done doing that. So, I would say that, a lot of these elements of this legislation are very consistent and much aligned with what key stakeholders want to see, but there's still more work to do. But we're pleased with where things are at today, and look forward to engaging with these folks in the future.

Okay, great. One other question, just have to ask that there's I guess, noise going on with your neighboring utility and begs the question kind of whether you would be interested or your policy on M&A activity?

Sure. Of course, Steve, we don't comment on rumors or certainly speculate on any M&A transaction, but let's just be clear, our team remains very focused on executing our strategic plan. As you heard me just talk about a little bit earlier, that plan is based on strong organic growth across all of our regulated businesses. And as you've seen in our presentation, there is certainly delivered strong returns in the past through the execution of that strategy. And that is absolutely our focus going forward, because, we believe it's going to continue to deliver superior value, not just to our shareholders, but especially, to our customers. So we're going to continue to stay focused on that plan, because we think that's going to deliver superior value in the long-term for all of our stakeholders.

Okay, great. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Okay. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Andrew Kirk, for closing remarks.

Thank you for participating in this call. A replay of this call will be available for one year on our website. If you have questions, you may call the contacts listed on our earnings release. Financial analysts' inquiries should be directed to me, Andrew Kirk. Media should call Erin Davis. Again, thank you for your interest in Ameren, and have a great day.

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.